I don't know how to respond to this without being condescending to the community, but "perhaps"? I don't know lol I agree that maybe this is the case (basically what I want to get at).
I mean, if it ends up changing and people start spamming GIFs and it becomes super relaxed, there's not much that can obviously be done from my vantage point about it. It'd just be a huge turn-off overall for me. Memes and GIFs are part of a community that I don't really willingly participate in, so I think I'm just stigmatizing it because of what I associate those images with - crudeness, immaturity, etc.
I'll be darned if someone answers one of my well-written posts with a meme, though. I'd actually find it insulting to have a well-written piece quoted by someone who only follows up with something like:
It's not if it'll happen. It's when. Not just to me, but eventually someone will be hit with that, and although initially it might be humorous, it risks to become either tiresome, irritating or (as mentioned before) insulting.
I definitely wouldn't appreciate having one of my well-written posts reponded to with a GIF or a meme or some other image in any case. Even one-liners: why even bother to comment at all if you're just going to post "lol" or "true dat" or "rekt"? It might even encourage thoughtful posters to not put in the same effort anymore because of lack of appreciation for good structure, format and vocabulary.
x
Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens from here. Maybe it won't become some sort of infection, but given the popularity of 9Gag and Reddit, I'm putting up a front from the get-go. No trust here lol